Saving Seafood

Protecting the Critical Value of Nearshore Habitat

November 11, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

No habitat in Puget Sound is more valuable to threatened Chinook salmon than nearshore habitat. No habitat is more degraded, either.

Nearshore habitat is shorthand for tidal marsh, wetlands, and river estuaries where land and water combine to support life of all kinds, from shorebirds to juvenile salmon and steelhead. Juvenile Puget Sound Chinook salmon spend their first critical months in saltwater feeding and growing in the sheltered water of nearshore habitat.

Their growth in that pivotal window determines in large part whether they will make it back to rivers as adults to spawn. With nearshore habitat dwindling, most do not.

When reviewing projects, NOAA Fisheries is updating its efforts to avoid further losses of nearshore habitat.

“It is important for projects to have a path forward, while we also need to stem the losses of this habitat that we have already lost so much of,” said Kim Kratz, Assistant Regional Administrator in NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region.

More than 95 percent of the most valuable nearshore habitat in Puget Sound is gone and is especially scarce in the south Sound, according to an analysis by the Puget Sound Nearshore Ecosystem Restoration Project. Scientists described it as a “dramatic change in the historic occurrence [of] these once-prominent nearshore ecosystems.”

Fewer than one percent of Puget Sound Chinook salmon juveniles that migrate to the ocean each year survive to return as adults. That means that already imperiled populations continue to decline. There are also repercussions for other species such as en

Read the full release here

ASMFC Seeks Proposals for Regional Pilot Projects in Support of Sustainable Aquaculture: Proposals Due January 15, 2021

November 11, 2020 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (Commission), in partnership with the NOAA Fisheries Office of Aquaculture, is issuing a Request for Proposals (RFP), seeking marine aquaculture pilot projects focused on sustainable aquatic farming techniques and regional business practices to grow U.S. domestic seafood. The geographic scope of the proposed projects is the U.S. East Coast states from Maine to Florida. The primary location of the proposed projects must be in the marine/estuarine environment.  Examples of the types of pilot projects being sought through the RFP follow:

  • Research and development related to the production and distribution of shellfish seed stock.
  • Finfish, shellfish (other than oyster*), and seaweed farming systems, especially for those species new to aquaculture in the region or that use novel production systems.
  • Identification and development of Aquaculture Development Zones with pre-planning and pre-permitting for a range of aquaculture activities.
  • Resolution of issues (e.g., enforcement, water quality, public trust concerns or impacts) related to open water finfish farming in state waters.
  • Business incubators
  • Regional market and economic impact studies
        • *Note: Proposals for oyster projects were already requested in a separate RFP (2019 Regional Oyster Aquaculture Research Consortia)
NOAA Fisheries, through the Commission, is making available $675,000 for the funding period of July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022. Individual proposals should not exceed $200,000 or be less than $75,000. It is anticipated that approximately 4-6 projects will be funded. Eligible applicants include researchers at U.S. academic institutions, research laboratories, for-profit companies/firms, nonprofits, and state agencies.  Proposals from foreign entities are not eligible. Proposals involving multiple investigators are welcome. U.S. federal government agencies, including Regional Fishery Management Councils, are not eligible to receive funding through this solicitation. Federal staff may be collaborators on proposed projects, as long as they are not compensated for their contribution to the project.

Applicants seeking to apply to the RFP must submit, as a single file, an electronic proposal by email no later than 5:00 p.m. EST on January 15, 2021. Please see the RFP for complete proposal details, qualifying requirements, and submission instructions. The RFP is available athttp://www.asmfc.org/files/RFPs/ASMFC2021PilotAquacultureRFP_Nov2020.pdf.

For more information, please contact Dr. Louis Daniel at ldaniel@asmfc.org or 252.342.1478.

Herring Fishery to Slow Down for Rest of 2020

November 11, 2020 — The New England herring fishery is slowing down for the rest of the year because fishermen are approaching their quota for the fish.

Fishermen will be unable to fish for or possess more than 2,000 pounds of herring per trip in the inshore Gulf of Maine until Dec. 31, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has ruled. The rules went into effect on Wednesday.

Herring are the subject of a large fishery on the East Coast, but the industry has struggled in recent years due to a decline in population. Fishermen caught less than 25 million pounds of the fish last year after catching more than 96 million pounds during the previous year.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News

North Slope Borough, NOAA, University of Washington and Cooperative Institute for Climate Ocean and Ecosystem Studies Scientists Collaborate to Monitor Whales in 2020 in Northern Alaska

November 10, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

In the Arctic, each year before daylight disappears and winter arrives, thousands of bowhead whales make their  fall migration across the Beaufort Sea off northern Alaska. The timing of the migration is something Alaska Indigenous communities and scientists can count on. However, 2019 was not a normal year.

What Happened in 2019?

The year 2019 was unusual in several ways. It was Alaska’s hottest year on record. Sea surface temperatures were significantly warmer than average. There also were salmon die-offs across the state as river temperatures, in some areas, hit 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

The timing of the bowhead whale migration was also different. By late October, the largely subsistence-based community of Utqiaġvik, Alaska, had seen few whales. Never in recent memory had whales come so late. NOAA researchers observed that both the edge of the sea ice and the bowhead whales were farther north than in previous years of surveying the area in Bureau of Ocean Energy Management-funded aerial studies.

“Whales are a vital part of our communities. Bowheads help us to feed our communities and are central to many of our cultural traditions. Hunting whales has been our way of life for thousands of years,” said North Slope Borough Mayor Harry K. Brower, Jr.

Read the full release here

NOAA Fisheries Science Helps Maine’s Pioneering Sea Scallop Farmers

November 10, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

A trait fishermen and scientists share is adaptability: the trait required to think on your feet, be comfortable with uncertainty, and repurpose resources when necessary.

“Adaptable” is a word that perfectly describes Marsden Brewer, a third-generation commercial fisherman, who is also a scallop farmer and owner of PenBay Farmed Scallops. Brewer’s business is the result of his 20-year effort, as well as techniques learned through Maine’s enduring friendship with its sister state, Aomori Prefecture, Japan. His three-and-a-quarter acre Stonington, Maine, farm is the first of its kind in Penobscot Bay.

“Princess” Scallops: A New England Locavore’s Delight

The Atlantic sea scallop fishery is one of the most valuable in the United States. While wild caught scallops have shells four inches across or larger and you only eat the adductor muscle, Brewer sells a smaller, whole-animal product. He offers three sizes:

  • “Princess” scallops are two inches across and can be grown in just 18 months
  • Medium scallops are about 2.75 inches and take 2 years
  • Large scallops are about 3 inches and take 3 years to grow.

Whole scallops are a delicacy prepared by chefs at restaurants in Maine and as far away as Colorado and Arizona. Brewer is not competing with the wild scallop fishery, but bringing a new local seafood to market. He has led other fishermen to farm scallops as a way to diversify their income in a changing environment.

Read the full release here

Black Sea Bass Sensitive to Ocean Noise in Wind Energy Development Areas

November 10, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Scientists looking at the effects of underwater pile driving and construction noise on sea life have found that black sea bass can hear these sounds. The noise may interfere with their natural behavior.

Their study is the first to look at the impact of ocean noise on this fish species. It found that younger fish were more sensitive to sounds than older fish. The frequencies at which the fish are most sensitive to sound directly overlap with frequencies of human-produced noise pollution. This noise comes from activities like shipping and the underwater construction required for offshore wind farms.

“No one knew for sure how much black sea bass can hear and how that changes as they age,” said Beth Phelan, a fishery biologist at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s laboratory at Sandy Hook, New Jersey and a co-author of the study. “We do know that black sea bass are attracted to underwater structures, and have anecdotal information that they move away from noise. We had to first determine the range of sounds they can hear by giving them a type of hearing test, much like we do to humans.”

Black sea bass are a commercially and recreationally important fish in the Mid-Atlantic Bight, the coastal region from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina to southern New England. Wind farms planned in the region overlap with current black sea bass habitat, exposing fish to construction and operational noises. Pile driving, for example, produces sounds that might stress fish, impacting their choice of habitat, feeding, social interaction and reproduction.

Read the full release here

Long-Running Plankton Survey to Resume in the Gulf of Maine

November 10, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

A new agreement between NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center, the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth, England and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution will allow a plankton survey to resume. The survey was originally conducted across the Gulf of Maine from 1961 to 2017.

NOAA Fisheries is providing funding for the survey through the NOAA Cooperative Institute for the North Atlantic Region, hosted by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The Marine Biological Association manages merchant vessel-based plankton surveys around the world. The association will run and maintain the resumed Gulf of Maine survey through 2024 under this agreement.

“Continuing a long-term time series like the Continuous Plankton Recorder Survey is essential to understanding the impact of climate change to marine ecosystems,” said Chris Melrose, a research oceanographer at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s laboratory in Narragansett, Rhode Island and NOAA representative on the agreement.

“Many marine species are shifting their distributions as ocean waters warm,” explained Melrose. “Because plankton are an important food source for many species, including the endangered North Atlantic right whale, knowing about changes in the plankton helps us to understand other changes we see in the ecosystem.”

Read the full release here

NOAA Fisheries Announces Atlantic Herring Management Area 1A Sub-ACL Harvested

November 9, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Effective 00:01 hours on November 11 through December 31, 2020

Under the New England Fishery Management Council’s Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan, no person may, fish for, possess, transfer, receive, land, or sell more than 2,000 lb of herring per trip or per calendar day in or from Area 1A for the remainder of the fishing year, as of the projected date when 92 percent of the Herring Management Area 1A catch limit will be harvested.  At 00:01 hours on November 11, 2020, a 2,000-lb herring possession limit per trip or calendar day will become effective for Management Area 1A (Figure 1) and will be in effect through December 31, 2020.

This action also prohibits federally permitted dealers from purchasing, possessing, receiving, selling, bartering, trading, transferring, or attempting to carry out the above actions for more than 2,000 lb of herring per trip or calendar day from Management Area 1A.

This action is in effect through 24:00 hr local time, December 31, 2020, unless it is from a vessel that enters port before 00:01 local time on November 11, 2020.

Read the full release here

The Continued Fight over Farming the Oceans

November 9, 2020 — In January 2016, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) finalized a rule that authorized up to 20 permits for fish farming in the Gulf of Mexico’s federal waters. For 18 months, no one applied.

“They didn’t want to run the gauntlet of these permits because it was just so fraught,” said Neil Sims, a serial aquaculture entrepreneur who ultimately broke the stalemate. He proposed a pilot project dubbed Velella Epsilon, which would produce a total of 20,000 almaco jack, a fish native to the Gulf, in state-of-the-art net pens 45 miles off the coast of Sarasota, Florida. Sims said that his company, Ocean Era, aimed to “blaze a trail, so people can see the process that we go through.”

So far, that process has resembled more of a battle. Years later, the permitting process is still ongoing, and at each step, a mix of local residents and groups representing environmentalists and wild capture fisheries has mounted fierce opposition—with public comments, lawsuits, and, most recently, a “people’s hearing” on the project taking place on September 30.

“This is potentially a precedent-setting operation,” said Marianne Cufone, the executive director of the Recirculating Farms Coalition, which promotes a specific style of land-based aquaculture, and a founding member of the Don’t Cage Our Ocean coalition. In Cufone’s opinion, it must be stopped.

Read the full story at Civil Eats

NOAA Fisheries to Require Electronic Vessel Trip Reporting for Commercial and For-Hire Vessels

November 9, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Effective November 10, 2021

NOAA Fisheries is approving a recommendation from both the Mid-Atlantic and New England Fishery Management Councils to require federally permitted commercial fishing vessels to submit vessel trip reports electronically within 48 hours of the end of a trip.

Upon request of the New England Council, we are also extending this requirement to vessels issued for-hire (charter/party) permits for New England Council-managed fisheries (i.e., Northeast multispecies). Vessels issued a Mid-Atlantic Council for-hire permit have been required to submit vessel trip reports electronically since March 2018. Note, reporting requirements for vessels issued only a federal lobster permit are being addressed in a separate rulemaking and this action does not affect those vessels.

The effective date of this action is being delayed for 1 year, until November 10, 2021, to allow ample time for training on the various electronic reporting applications and to allow vessel owners and operators the time to find the appropriate application for their operations. Information on eVTR applications is available on our website.  Additional information on training opportunities can be found on the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s website.

For more details, please read the rule as filed in the Federal Register or the bulletin.